Forget Zlatan – Chicharito is the biggest MLS signing since Beckham

Javier’Chicharito’ Hernandez has always been the dream registering for MLS. Aside from Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, There Isn’t Any larger star in North America compared to Mexico striker.

He’s a player that attracts a different amount of focus in this part of the earth and, for many, many years, despite attempt after attempt, it seemed like that unmatched potential could never be fulfilled.

Sure, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was an incredible signing, as his quips and miracle goals captured attention in the U.S. and abroad.

Of course, the signing of Wayne Rooney was massive, and it had been made even larger from the Englishman’s willingness to become a spokesman for the league.

Players like David Villa, Kaka, and Bastian Schweinsteiger all brought eyeballs for their respective groups. But not one of the players mentioned — not even Ibrahimovic — can perform what Chicharito can perform.

After the reduction of Ibrahimovic that this offseason, the group who has established itself as the MLS leader in large splashes somehow discovered a way to substitute the boisterous Swede with a player that will bring even more attention and headlines.

Several teams have attempted to tempt the Mexican celebrity to America. The Galaxy went outside and did it in the time once the league and club needed him most.

That is not to say Hernandez is a better player than Ibrahimovic or even Rooney, both of whom left the league this winter while leaving MLS lacking in star power. He is certainly not more accomplished than Rooney, the guy he backed up throughout his time at United.

He also hasn’t scored anywhere near as many targets as Ibrahimovic, who arrived in Manchester shortly after Chicharito’s Old Trafford departure for a journey that included a mixed bag of ceases at Bayer Leverkusen, West Ham, and Sevilla.

But Chicharito’s pull is exceptional.

To this day, Regardless of the rapid growth of the Premier League, La Liga and also the Bundesliga, Liga MX stays the most-watched league in the USA by a large margin.

The Mexican national team played 12 matches in the U.S. at 2019, together with 690,554 fans attending for a mean of 57,546 each game. The only two games with more than 28,000 fans in existence? You guessed it: Mexico.

MLS may signify American, and Canadian, football, but there’s no doubt that Mexico is king, and Chicharito is perhaps the most popular figure in Mexican football history.

Galaxy product and ticket sales will soar, for sure. Tickets will sell out wherever they perform, and there will surely be hundreds, if not tens of thousands of green and red-clad fans in attendance at every stop.

Even the Chicago Fire, maybe the biggest loser in all this — given their rumored interest from the forward over the years and their dire need for any sort of celebrity — will benefit from packaging Soldier Field when the Chicharito series rolls in town.

But this registering is no mere marketing ploy.

The on-the-field impact should also be massive, as Chicharito joins a Galaxy group that seems to be perfectly constructed because of his talents. He’ll go straight into a lineup loaded with founders, from Cristian Pavon to Sebastian Lletget to Jonathan dos Santos.

The Galaxy has talent, even if they haven’t really lived up to expectations in recent decades. Chicharito’s signing gives the team a participant who should provide double-digit goals in even the worst of cases, as he should instantly become one of the dreaded strikers in MLS.

Regardless of the rise of mega-clubs such as Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC, the Galaxy has once again demonstrated that this club has more pull than perhaps some in North America.

Maybe not all of their moves have worked out, however, though other clubs continue to attempt and outdo each other, that the Galaxy still finds ways to come over the top and remind everybody of that they are.

Recently, it’s not translated into an MLS Cup, but there’s not any mistaking the club intent and willingness to just get things done, regardless of what.